Christ lives within my heart. Scripture says, 2 Corinthians
13, 5, says, know ye not your own self, how that Jesus Christ
is in you, except you be reprobate. So that's not presumption. It's
real. He truly sets up residence in
his people. And I like what John Newton said,
though. He said, I'm not what I want
to be. I'm not what I ought to be. I'm not what I'm going to
be. I know this. I'm not what I used to be. A
new creature. Go back to our text now in Exodus
30. three children of Israel. How I thank God. For writing
this story. About the children of Israel. I find myself right in the middle
of them. And all that they did. Had I
lived back then. I would have been right in the
middle of it. In the midst of their murmuring, complaining, in the midst of their restlessness
and their lust and their idolatry, their sensuality, their wanderings,
their worldliness, I would have been
right there. I'm so thankful the Lord wrote
this story. And the Psalms over and over
throughout the Psalms, David rehearses to us. What God did
for the children of Israel, what all they did against the Lord. And yet what the Lord did for
them were the Lord long suffering that Says they wandered in a
solitary way, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted. Then they
cried unto the Lord and he delivered them. Says because they rebelled against
the words of God, condemned the counsel of the Most High, he
brought down their heart with labor. They fell down. There was none to help. Then
they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. And they were fools because of
their transgression and because of their iniquities. And they
cry unto the Lord. He's safe. Then they go down. They go down. They're feared. They fear. Their soul melted
because of trouble. They're at their wits' end. They
cry unto the Lord in their trouble. And he brings them out. over and over again. That's why
he says throughout that psalm, oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness. That's God's chief goodness,
his mercy, his salvation to such ungrateful people. Here in Exodus chapter 33, The ones now that are. The Lord is dealing with. Are
the ones he spared from the sword. You remember the previous chapter.
All of them were involved in that idolatry, dancing naked,
you know, around that calf and so forth, despising Moses, all
of them. And God killed three how many
three thousand. Yeah, 3,000. That's a lot of
people. But these now that he's speaking
to are the ones that he spared. He had mercy on them. He had
mercy on them. They were spared. But yet, the
Lord still calls them stiff-necked. And apparently, at this time,
they were all decked out. And you read with me how that. The Lord, through Moses, told
him to strip, take these garments off and I'll see what I'm going
to do with you. And we looked at that a little
earlier, but. They were all wearing these ornaments.
Now it's not just outward adornment. Everyone in here is dressed up
as you wouldn't normally be. But what this was, we saw this
morning how the people thought they were something when they
were nothing. They had been brought out of the slime pits. And then
because they thought they were free, they got all puffed up
with vain glory and thought they were something when they were
nothing. The Lord gave them everything, made them everything, brought
them out, had mercy on them, provided for them. Everything
they had was of the Lord, and somehow or another, they still
got prepped up and adorned themselves. And then the Lord had to threaten
them, didn't He? He threatened them until they
were stripped of all that they thought was beautiful about themselves. And then Now, here's what I want
us to look at. And now that they're stripped.
Of all those adornments that they made, all that their self.
Worth and beauty, then the Lord takes a tent, this tent, this
tabernacle. Look at it in verse seven. He
told Moses to take the tabernacle and pitch it without the camp. but far off from the camp, and
called it the tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to
pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out of the camp unto the tabernacle of the congregation,
which was, again, without The blessed, merciful, and gracious
God had his servant Moses, right
in front of the eyes of this stiff-necked people, pitch this
tent out there where everybody could see. Not in the middle
of them, mind you, out there, where they had to leave where
they were and go to it. This tent. Now, what is this
tent? How many times we've seen this? Oh, my, my, my. May the Lord show us more than
a tent. This tabernacle was a brown skin
tent. It was designed by God. God was the architect of this.
Come on now. God was the architect of this
brown skin tent. that he ordered in exact detail
everything about this tent. This is the worship of God. The salvation of God was all
in and around this tent, and God put it out there. And here
were the people, a bunch of stiff-necked, about-to-be-consumed people.
God's going to just destroy them. But He put this place, this tent,
out there. far off from them, and all who wanted to worship
God, all who wanted to save from this cesspool that they were
found in, all who did not want to be consumed
by God, forsaken by God. I really don't even need to comment
anymore. But this tent, ordered by God,
it was the place, inside the tent anyway, was a table full
of bread. Inside that tent was gold and
candlesticks, bright light. Inside that tent was an altar
of incense, sweet-smelling incense. Inside that tent, that is, if
you went through a big curtain or veil, if you went through
there, there was a golden box called an ark. And on top of
that ark was a mercy seat. A mercy seat. What is all that? To say the same things to you
is not grievous to me. It's our salvation. It's all
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I am the bread of life. He who tabernacled among us.
God manifest in the flesh. brown skin though he was, yet
this is God. This is God, plain and ordinary
on the outside, but this is God. For in him we find the bread
of God, the life-giving. Who needs Christ? Hungry. In him is the light of the world. Who needs light? Those who are
in darkness. And he's the sweet incense of
God. In other words, he's the intercessor.
He's the one whom God hears. Who needs God to hear them? Who
needs a mediator? Who needs an intercessor? He
is the mercy seat. He's the place where God will
have mercy. He's the place where God will
meet with no good stiff neck sinners. Now, who needs Christ? stiff-necked people. Sinners,
rebels, those who need mercy come to a mercy seat. How plain
can you get? Who needs mercy? Who needs a
mercy seat, that is? Those that need mercy. Now, God had Moses pitch that
tent in the wilderness. This house of worship, that's
what it was. It was a place of worship. There was no other place to worship.
house of God, a place and it was a place where God revealed
so much to the people. It was a revelation of God, a
place of worship, a place of repression, a place where it
says everyone which sought the Lord could go and find the Lord.
Everyone, whenever. It was always there. You could
always resort to that place and find the Lord. That's because
that's where the Lord was. Now as I said this was a brown
skinned tent, badger skin it was covered with, badger skin.
And to all that passed by, the Hittites, the Hivites, Perizzites,
Jebusites and so forth, to all that passed by they didn't see
anything in that tent did they? To those that passed by it was
nothing to them, just a tent. plain, that ordinary place, those
that passed by. But to all who sought the Lord,
those who truly sought the Lord and went to this place, God just
revealed to them the kind of glory. They saw in that place all the
blessings of God. They saw all the honor and glory
of God being in and around that tent. was a little bit of heaven
on earth. And it's called the Tabernacle of
the Congregation. Think of that. They were named,
this tabernacle was named for them and after them. Tabernacle
of the Congregation. And it was not beautiful on the
outside. As I said, there was no form about it. We studied
that, didn't we? No form. It was rectangular. It didn't have elaborate gables
and structures and roof lines and so forth and so on. Columns
and capitals and this and that and the other. Fancy frieze boards. None of that. No form. Just plain. Looked like a box. Big box. Big brown box. Rectangular. No comeliness about it. There
was no adornments on the outside. There was no gold, no silver,
no precious stones. You didn't see any of that. What
you saw out in the courtyard was a lot of bloodshed. Smelled
wood smoke burning, fire burning. It was a brown tent. But if you'd go on inside, It was glorious. There was nothing
like it. There was never been anything like it on the inside.
It's all glorious within. Does God make this? Man see if not as God sees. Man looks on the outward countenance,
doesn't he? This was all hidden to the natural
eye. The natural man couldn't see anything about this. But
only a chosen few, only those who were chosen by God to come.
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach
unto this tabernacle. To go into the house of God,
David said, to behold his glory, to inquire into his temple, to
see the beauty of the Lord. And this is all, as I said, the
Lord Jesus Christ. When he came to this earth, Isaiah
prophesied of his coming, he said there'll be no form or comeliness
about him. He looked like an average Jewish
man. He doesn't look like these pictures that they have of him.
You know, this Caucasian fellow with blue eyes and so forth that's
appealing, that's very handsome looking. No, no, no, no, no.
He says there's no form, nothing. He wasn't big and scrapping and
muscular and appealing to the natural eye. Not at all. No comeliness
about him, no beauty, no outward beauty. that we should desire
Him. That wasn't what was going to
make people follow Him and be drawn to Him. It was what was on the inside that was going to be drawn by
His voice, by His Word, by His Spirit. And when God Almighty
calls us by His marvelous grace, when God Almighty makes you a
king and a priest, He brings you on the inside. And his tabernacle
and you as a scripture says, behold, his glory, Christ's glory. That's what this is all about.
The glory, the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, to behold
his glory as of the only begotten of the father. Enemies of Christ said, we know
who you are, you're the carpenter's son, you're Jesus of Nazareth
and so forth. But like Thomas said, you're
my Lord and my God. As Paul said, I see in you my
all and in all. As Solomon said, he is altogether
lovely, more than just a man. Behold his glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And you have
revealed to you in the Lord Jesus Christ, if God brings you within
his tabernacle, within the veil to behold Christ, God reveals
unto you all the treasures If the people could go into that
tabernacle, they would see treasures. Gold, silver, all these things.
And if God brings you to cry, you see all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge, hidden mystery. And then if God brings
you within the veil, within the veil into the Holy of Holies,
you'll see what it's all about, what this whole tabernacle is
all about. The central piece of furniture,
the reason God made this whole thing, this tabernacle, was a
box with a lid on it inside that holy of holy place. The ark of
the covenant, a mercy seat on top of that ark. The ark of the
covenant containing the broken law and a mercy seat on top of
it where the atonement was made, propitiation for the soul of
sin. What's all that? Just old Jewish. Tradition and
ceremony and all that. These things speak of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, it says when Christ
was hanging upon Calvary's tree that. And he expired when he
said it's finished. It says the veil of the temple
was ramped. There was a temple standing at
that time. Wherein was the table of showbread, the candlestick,
the altar of incense, the veil, and inside the veil, there's
a big veil, no one could go in but one man, the high priest,
and inside that veil was an ark and a mercy seat. But it said
when Christ was hanging upon Calvary's tree, and when he said it is finished,
when he died, when he said, into thy hands I commit my spirit,
and he gave up the ghost, he died. It says, Scripture says,
the veil of the temple was ripped. That veil was about six inches
thick. It was ripped from top to bottom. And what that showed was that
when Jesus Christ was being made sin for us, who knew no sin,
the redemption, the atonement of God, the Lamb of God, putting
away the sins of his people by the sacrifice of himself. And
he finished. He did. When he died for our
sins, the way into God, access to God, acceptance with God,
was open. Or we could go into the Holy
of Holies. We're going to go into heaven itself. How? Through the
blood of Jesus Christ. That veil was ripped. God ripped
it. showing that we could go in to
the Holy of Holies. He's called the true tabernacle. Hebrews 8 calls him the true
tabernacle, which God pitched. Tabernacle, not made with hands,
but which the Lord pitched, not man. Christ, made of a woman.
Yes. But Christ said to the Father,
a body hast thou prepared me. That woman didn't contribute
to his form. Oh no, a body which God
prepared him, not man, a tabernacle for God's glory, not man's, a
tabernacle for God's presence. Now look at this. It said this
tabernacle, look at it, it said this three times in one verse.
Did you notice that? It says, took the tabernacle
and pitched it, verse seven, without the camp. Verse 7, afar off from the camp. The last line, without the camp. Whoever sought the Lord went
out unto the tabernacle, which was without the camp. The Lord Jesus Christ, Scripture
says, though He was made sin, He was without sin. He was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh, yet without. Christ was a man yet, but he
was holy harmless. What's the next word you with
me separate from center? It goes on to say that I've never
noticed this before. Hebrews a higher than the heavens. He said I'm from above. That which is of the earth is
earthy. He's the Lord from heaven, separate
from center, separate. He who is high, holy, separate
from center, yet all who sought the Lord. God is holy, yet all
who seek the Lord can go unto him. Isaiah said he dwells in
a where no man could approach and he said, though the Lord
be high. Yet, I think you respect under
the load. Thus sayeth the high and lofty one, he that inhabiteth
eternity, I dwell in the heavenlies in a high place, but with him
that is lowly and of a contrite heart and trembleth at my word. All who seek him can go to him. Oh, and it says without the camp,
he's without the camp far off. You notice that afar off keeps
on telling us that this wasn't even anywhere near the camp.
Wasn't anywhere near the camp camp. The camp, as I said, represents
where the people were. This is where they spend a great
sin. They send a great sin. All those people that were in
the middle of that camp. And. It was, you know, the more people
people were like dogs, the more of them you get together, the
worse they get. They feed off of one another, not goodness,
but badness, rottenness, particularly the male animal. Pack of dogs,
you've seen a pack of dogs, get one or two together, all right,
two, three or four. Five or six in there, bloodthirsty. Wow. People are like dogs in that
camp, you know, they all got together and Moses tarried coming
down from the mountain. We don't know where he is. And
they didn't have a true leader. And they all got naked, dancing
around the camp. That's what was in the camp. Just a filthy, abominable, but
God wasn't there. in the midst of that stuff, their
sin. But it says, everyone that feared
the Lord, everyone that sought the Lord,
that is everyone, I want out of here. What is God saving His people
from? Sin. From the world. From ourselves. To everyone that says, I want
out of here. I want out of this cesspool of
iniquity. I want out of my sin. I want
out of this mess I'm in. I want out of me. Or take me
out of myself. Take self out of me. It says
everyone that sought the Lord, everyone that seeks the Holy
One of Israel, everyone that seeks to be like Him, everyone
that seeks His mercy, His grace, everyone that finds in Him the
altogether lovely One, everyone that wants to be like Him. Right
there. Go! Go! Get out of here and go! Every
one of them. They just freely go. Camp. He was far off from the
camp. That means it took some doing
to get there, didn't it? How would you know a real seeker? It took some effort. It took
some effort to get there. Far off. It wasn't a convenient
thing. Our Lord over and over and over
throughout the scripture says, except you forsake all that you
have, you cannot be my father, mother, sister, brother, husband,
wife, family. For my sake. And stay in the
camp. You can go on to him without
the camp. And this camp represents religion,
we've seen this before. How that this and Hebrews chapter
13 says this very thing that is chapter 13 verse 13. Let us
go therefore unto him without the camp. Bearing his reproach. Christ
is not in the middle of this mess. This cesspool of iniquity
called modern religion is not in it. How do? And it resembles what
happened in that camp back there, dancing. I thought about this. You think of the irony of it
all. Religion, just 40 or 50 years ago, all they had to preach
against was dancing. Now what are they doing? Dancing. If you don't dance, you don't
have the spirit, they say. They don't know it, but they're
all naked. Stan, they don't know it, but
they're dancing naked. They don't have a covering. You think of the irony of that.
Isn't that something? About all they had to preach against was
dancing and women preachers. Now all the soap-golf preachers
are women. They're all dancing naked around a golden calf. It's
called modern religion. Christ is not anywhere near that. He's far off. God is not in anywhere near this
stuff. And to go on to him, we've got
to go on to him without this camp. Without this camp. How do you know? I've only been
less than 30 minutes. How do you know? How do you how
can you discern. The truth from error how can
you know that you're. Where God is where his tabernacle
how do you know true religion from. And true worship from how
do you know. Well God hasn't changed and the
way to worship God hasn't changed and all of these types and symbols
and so forth are typical of true religion now the religion of
God true worship of God now it hasn't changed all right because
true religion God's true people is true church is like this tabernacle
of oh it's plain. Plain. Simple no outward show. Are you with me. No outward show. None of these bunch of these
man-made ornaments. Very plain, very simple. And it's not all about what you
see, either. It's not outward show. That tent
didn't look like much on the outside. What did it have to
offer? What was it all about? It's what's
on the inside. What you'll find on the inside
of God's church is great beauty and glory. Not the place itself,
but the message, the gospel of Christ, the altogether lovely
one. What you'll find in there, like the tabernacle, is food.
Food. The hungry and the thirsty can
go and eat showbread. Full table. And light. Just like
the old tabernacle, you, there's light. Every single person whom
God reveals Christ to. In religion, but I was blind,
but now I see. How do you see? God brought you
into His tabernacle. See lights, the light of the
knowledge, the glory of God. What is it? What was that candlestick? Who was it? Christ's light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You'll see your incense. You'll smell incense. His house
is called a house of what? My house should be called a house
of what? Prayer. God's people calling on God for
what? Mercy. God be mercy, mercy, mercy,
mercy, grace to help in time of need. House of prayer calling
on God. And blood. You go inside that
old tabernacle of old, you see blood everywhere, blood everywhere.
Hebrews talks about they said all things were purged by blood.
It was a bloody religion. That's the reason it didn't appeal
to the average man. It was so bloody. Nancy, it was so bloody.
Everybody had blood all over. The priest, all these garments
were beautiful. He was covered with blood. Animal
after animal being slaughtered, a slaughterhouse religion. Blood
everywhere. Blood all over everything. It
was a bloody religion. It wasn't appealing to the natural
man, but to the sinners who knew that there was one thing that
could put away their sin. Blood! That blood was beautiful. Beautiful. Lots of it. And the fear of the
Lord. What did you find here among
these people? The fear of the Lord. amongst
the people. Reverence. Look at verse 8. It
says, It came to pass when Moses went out unto the tabernacle,
that all the people rose up and stood at attention. Every man at his tent door. This
is your tent. This is your tabernacle. The
door is heart. Out of the heart are the issues
of life. Out of the abundance of the heart
The soul, the man, the person stands amazed at the presence of, yes, a man, a table, a tent.
How more than that? God with us. This is not just
religion to God's people. It's God with us. Emmanuel. God with us. Every one of them, it says, they
stood and they looked after Moses. They saw Moses going into that
tabernacle. Every one of them. Picture this with me. I wish
I could portray this. A bunch of rebels, a bunch of
stick-neck people that God Almighty threatened to kill them all.
Threatened to kill them all. He's going to. He's going to.
He literally did just that. But God put this ten out there
and said, now you bunch of stiff-necked rebels, look, get out of here
and get out there. This is going down fast. I'm going to consume you in a
moment, he said. Get in everybody that sought
the Lord, not health, wealth, not stuff, the Lord. Y'all can have this. And they saw Moses walking out
there. Moses, the one they hated and
despised and rejected before and resented. He said, you're
just a man like us. Who do you think you are? We
know something. You're not just God's man. Yes, he was. And they saw Moses going out
there. And those that sought the Lord stood at their tent. Oh, there He goes, looking unto
Him. It's more than a story. Give me Christ or I die. Get me out of this cesspool.
I've got to get to Christ. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. I'm going into the Holy of Holies. Barbara, Christ ascended up into
glory. Ascended up into the Holy of
Holies. That's where He is now. But all that are down in this
camp, a bunch of naked dancers, a bunch
of rebels, stiff-necked, and they themselves are stiff-necked. Oh, please save me. Don't concern
me." He said, look. They rose up. She'll raise us
up. They rose up, stood in the door,
and looked on me. Oh, may the Lord do that for
us. And they said in verse 11, Now
verse 10 and 11, all the people saw the cloudy pillar standing
at the tabernacle door. All the people rose up and worshipped.
What's this all about? What are we doing here? Why do
we come here? We took of a table Wednesday
night. Why? Because we're supposed to,
because we ought to, because we haven't done it in a while. Paul said that table is so serious,
he said, some that partook of it in the wrong motive and attitude,
God killed them. I mean, that's the New Testament. Worship. Our Lord said, well,
did Isaiah speak of this people? This people draw near with their
lips, sing all the song, keep coming, but their hearts are
not. Let us say unto God, God, let it be far from me. to do such a thing. Draw near
with my lips. My heart's not in it. Lord, draw
me. Draw me and I'll be drawn. Lord,
bring me out. Lord, I'm looking to Thee and
Thee alone. These starry, stiff-necked... Why didn't God consume some of
them? Some of them were spared. Some
of them were spared. Some of them went in promisingly.
As we noted earlier, there's two adults, and he's over 20,
20 and over. There's two. The rest of them
are children. And if we ever reach a point,
you know, where we know something when we're nothing, when we know
nothing, as we also know nothing, We ever reach a point where we
think we're something. I'm a man now. I'm a mature enough. Any
man thinks he's something when he's nothing. Nothing. Ever cease to be taught as little
children. Cease to learn. There's nothing
we need to learn anymore. We're not going in. We're not
going in. Those that were children, And they were those whom Moses
interceded for. We're going to look at the rest
of the chapter. Who went in? The ones that Moses
interceded for. He said they are stiff-necked
people. He said, Lord, if we've found grace in Your
eyes, go with us. Show us Your glory. And that's what we're going to
look at Wednesday night. And all who sought the Lord And worship
go there or. Wednesday night with your appetite. Hungry. Wednesday night last
question from Exodus thirty three how shall it be known how do
I know that I found grace. In the eyes of law. See by grace
you say. Salvation by grace. Everyone
that is saved finds grace. Well how do I know. That I found
right. And yes. It's important question. Come down with us we'll do. OK
OK. Uh huh. Uh huh. Thank you very much.